Every time I travel and stay in a hotel (or anywhere really), I find myself critically analyzing every material detail to the point that I sound really obnoxious.  My recent stay in LA was no exception.  The funniest part was flying in to a blacked out windy city, and being handed a glow stick at check in.  Yes!  Luckily, the power came back on an hour or so later.

Hotels really fascinate me with their room layouts, as they’re meant for single use and efficiency.   I always look at product design and placement, and wonder who pays $3 for a bottle of water when they have a sink in their room.  My room came with the following:

I know it’s commonplace to hate on Starbucks, and I won’t waste much time here.  They seem to improve their image and talk with time, but I can’t help but keep an eyebrow raised nonetheless.  “Fair Trade” coffee in the room, with single use coffee cups…wrapped in plastic for your cleanliness and enjoyment.

Right away I wonder why they don’t have mugs, but I guess they figure people take them.  My answer: Brand them as Sheraton mugs and charge $10 if they’re yanked.  Maybe the 10 seconds of time for an employee to wash out the used mugs in the sink wouldn’t justify it.

Luckily, there’s a recycling can in the room!  I spoke to cleaning staff and they proudly explained the sorting process: very, very nice to see.  There’s hope that the wet coffee cup and essentially worthless polystyrene lid get separated properly at the Material Recovery Facility.  At least the (unnecessary) coffee sleeve is recyclable, and made of 60% post consumer recycled fiber (actually an important characteristic).

Want to make a green choice?  Request not to have your bedsheets and towels changed.  Save water, soap, labor and electric while receiving a $5 food voucher.  Let me guess, “go green and save green”?  Blah.  Most hotels have adopted this practice and marketing at this point, and I’m glad…although it still comes off as a bit corny.  But so do I.

The best part of this sign is the “Made from Earth Friendly Materials” line.  Really?  Wow!  I’d be happier if you said “Made from 0% recycled fiber”, or even “Printed on paper with soy based inks” (or water based inks)…what isn’t?  If you’re gonna reach, go for the top shelf.

Speaking of top shelf, the clean air sign (in photo 1) is awesome.  I’m so psyched I get to breathe clean air in this room…look at the earthy design.  I have to give it to them, such a smart way to say “This is a non-smoking room and we’ll bill you $200 if we smell anything”.

Now I ask the question: Does this come off as greenwashing to you, or innocent changes in the hotel’s perception?  OK, I’m done hating now.

I also love checking out public restrooms, especially in hotels although I haven’t figured out why yet.  My parents can confirm my obsession with rating bathrooms ever since I was a little kid…counting the urinals was an early favorite.  It’s all waste related, right?

Yes!  I love waterless urinals.  A win-win all around, and these have a killer shape to them which makes it super hard to backsplash any pee on yourself.  I don’t know how they did it, but I’m going to try making a phone call to an engineer at Sloan about this…I’m sure that a lot of work went into the curvature of this thing.

Now that we eliminated touching the urinal flusher from the picture (since we all use the flusher every time, haha) it’s time to move on to the touchless soap dispenser…and non-touchless faucet.  Maybe the next phase is replacing those and the paper towel dispensers next.  I hate touchless paper towel systems.  I just want a piece that’s less than a foot long, not enough to wrap several christmas presents.

What I don’t like about these is the electric eyes never seem calibrated correctly, and you’ll get extra squirts of soap and excessive water blasting down the drain after you walk away.  Finally, after your hands are supposedly all clean and sterile, you grab a paper towel (is that totally clean?) and then grab a door handle fresh with cooties of all the people that don’t wash their hands.  I love it!

Now I’m not a microbiologist by any means, and I think that was my worst class in school (memorizing names of stuff you can’t see, great!)…but perception of cleanliness plays a big part regardless.  Perception of greenliness (bad joke, don’t use that word) appears to be more and more playing a part, too.

You must be thinking I give this hotel an F, right?  No way, not even close.  Sure, there’s some things that could be replaced or modified a bit, but overall it’s a better look than a lot of hotels I’ve stayed in.  The best look?  Get composting already!